1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to rotor systems, and more specifically, to coaxial rotor systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Rotor systems are well known in the art for effectively creating lift for an aircraft. Conventional rotor systems include one or more rotor blades operably associated with a yoke, and in some embodiments, include two rotor assemblies coaxially aligned. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a coaxial rotor aircraft 101 having a first rotor assembly 103 coaxially aligned with a second rotor assembly 105. During flight, the rotor assemblies are configured to remain relatively stiff in the in-plane rotation and stiff in the out-of-plane rotation. This feature prevents the rotor assemblies from coming into contact with each other.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary cross-sectional view of a conventional rotor system 201 having two coaxially aligned rotor assemblies 203 and 205. In this embodiment, the rotor blades 207 attach directly to the yoke 209 via one or more roller bearings 211 that allow solely rotational movement about the pitch-change axis and limits movement about both the chord axis and the beam axis. Thus, system 201 effectively creates a stiff in-plane and a stiff out-of-plane rotational movement during flight.
Considerable shortcoming remains with conventional rotor systems configured with stiff in-plane and out-of-plane rotation. For example, a rotor system that is configured to have a stiff in-plane rotation greatly reduces the ability of the rotor system to compensate for in-plane loads exerted on the yoke via the rotor blades during flight, e.g., lead/lag movement of the rotor blade.
Although the foregoing developments in rotor systems represent great strides in the art, many shortcomings remain.
While the system and method of the present application is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the process of the present application as defined by the appended claims.